Biblical Hebrew Forum

[ben.crick AT argonet.co.uk (Ben and Jo Crick)]

On Sat 16 Nov 2002 (23:41:19 +1100), haines AT alastairs.com wrote:
> I wondered if any of the list members cared to comment on how Isaiah
> 28:10&13 should be understood.
> 
> tsav latsav tsav latsav qav laqav qav laqav
> 
> Or shouldn't it be understood? Is that the point?
>
 The Sitz im Leben is something like this. The religious leaders of Isaiah's
 time were complaining that Isaiah was treating them like Kindergarten kids
 (verse 9). Don't you talk down to us!

 In the Kindergarten, the children sit in a semicircle in front of the 
teacher,
 who recites verses phrase by phrase for them to repeat and learn by rote.

 So we have this exchange:
 Teacher: CaW LaCaW            Children: CaW LaCaW
 Teacher: QaW LaQaW            Children: QaW LaQaW
 Teacher: W:`eR $aM            Children: W:`eR $aM

 And to underline it, it is repeated again at verse 13.
 For CaW compare Hosea 5:11, HaLaK 'aXa:ReY-CaW; for QaW compare 1 Kings 7:23,
 W:QaW $:Li$iYM Ba'aMMaH (although there is a QeRe-KeTiB complication there).

 God warned Isaiah in 6:9 that his hearers would not want to listen, and
 would misconstrue all he said. In Isaiah 18:2 and 7 a GoWY QaW-QaW is
 going to be a problem. A nation whose speech is QaW-QaW?  A nation whose
 speech the Greeks would say sounded like "Bar-bar", so "barbarians"?

 If Isaiah's hearers would not believe what he told them in simple language,
 then they would be told in a foreign language which they did not know: the
 Babylonian language.

 The view from here...

 Ben
-- 
 Revd Ben Crick BA CF, and Mrs Joanna (Goodwin) Crick
 <ben.crick AT argonet.co.uk>
 232 Canterbury Road, Birchington, Kent, CT7 9TD (UK)
 http://www.cnetwork.co.uk/crick.htm